Bluelines to go off roads from Feb 1

New Delhi, Jan 30 (Agencies): The blueline buses will be going off the roads from February 1 in line with their final deadline expiring tomorrow.

The 'killer' fleet, which had gained a bad name for involvement in recurrent accidents, will completely phase out from February one.

As part of efforts to restructure the public transport system in the city, the Delhi government had shunted out 823 Blueline buses on December 14 and removed 389 more on December 31 out of a total of 2,052 such vehicles.

Transport Minister Arvinder Singh Lovely had earlier said that January 31 will be the "last day" for the left behind 840 Blueline buses in the city.

He had said the state-run Delhi Transport Corporation will able to meet the transportation needs of the people.

Officials said the "complete phase-out" of the fleet is "on schedule" and notices have been issued to Blueline operators to give in their permits by Monday.

The Delhi High Court had on January 20 reserved its order on the city government's appeal not to permit the Blueline buses to come back on roads.

The bus operators went to the court seeking to run their buses on the roads till the government implements the new cluster bus system.

The court has turned down operators' plea for extension of permits of one-third of the 2,000 Bluelines which lapsed.

Justifying its decision to phase out Blueline buses, the government had told the court that the private buses are six times more accident-prone than DTC buses.

A Delhi government official said any Blueline bus plying on roads after January 31 will be impounded as permits have been suspended. Asked about some Bluelines running on roads after painting the vehicles white, he said a drive will be launched and all buses running without permit will be seized.

An official from the transport agency, on being asked about the challenge before the DTC, said it is capable of handling the passenger traffic of the city.

"We now have a fleet of 6,200, including 3575 low-floor buses. We are confident of being able to handle the situation. There will be no problem. At any given day, at least 5,000 DTC buses are there on the roads," the official said.

The Delhi government has been trying to modernise the entire public transport system in the city and has acquired hundreds of upscale low-floor buses, including air-conditioned and non-air conditioned vehicles.

Last year the government had declared an ambitious cluster bus service scheme under which corporate entities were proposed to be given certain routes in the city on the pattern of cities like Paris and London.

The first cluster bus service is expected to begin its operation in February.

Delhi government in 2009 had divided nearly 650 bus routes across the city into 17 clusters, each comprising profitable and non-profitable routes and decided to give each cluster to a private operator.